Shooting in the dark

From time to time I am asked to shoot something without a flash in a very dark environment. Last night I shoot a Good Friday service for my church. They didn't want any flashes as they didn't want to disrupted anyone while they were worshiping. So what are the tricks? To get it out of the way a newer camera with high ISO helps. I shot with a Nikon D300 that goes up to 6400 ISO. At the high it gets a bit grainy but a grainy picture beats a blurry picture any day. I shot slower then that for most of the time, around 3200 or 1200. The second help is a lens that has a wide aperture. I used a 50mm F/1.8, 18-200mm VR, and a 70-200mm F/2.8. That's all well and good but what if you have a perfectly fine camera that is a year or two old (low ISO) and just your kit lens? The worlds cheapest mono pod helps. I don't remember were I saw this, but go to the hardware store and get a 1/4" bolt and a washer. The bolt screws into the tripod mount on your camera. You then tie a bit of string to the bolt and leave enough to reach the floor plus a little. The bottom end is tied to the washer. This gives you something to stand on. After standing on the washer hold the camera up till the string is tight and you have a 10 cent mono pod. This helps you hold the camera still when taking longer exposure shoots on the dark. Next trick is wait for the still moments. Most of the time a speaker or musician will have little moments when they hold still. If you are ready and waiting for those moments you can fire off a picture just as they stop. Also shoot in RAW. RAW files have a bit more information than you can see. If you shoot in RAW and then lighten the picture in your computer you will have an extra stop of light waiting for you in your computer. Lastly don't try to take the pictures you would with your flash. Let the picture show how dark it was and don't be afraid of a little moment in you shoot. This picture makes it look lighter than it was. I couldn't see to read and so I was working my camera from memory. People that had to walk out were using their cell phone for light. I used the VR lens at 18mm and wanted to have the people visible, so I set the metering to the middle setting as the speaker had a spot on him and would have made the picture too dark if I had set it to center spot metering, and waited for him to hold still. I framed with the last row of chairs.